


Family Ties

by professor_east



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Character, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Genderfluid Character, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Inspired by ATYD, Multi, Polyamory, atyd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29169678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professor_east/pseuds/professor_east
Summary: A continuation of events after "Out of the Blue" by MsKingBean89 from the perspective of Teddy Lupin. Teddy talks to Harry about his father, and the two of them visit Remus's London flat together. Both Harry and Teddy discover parts of their parents past they had never known before.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley/Original Male Character(s), Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Teddy Lupin & Harry Potter
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	Family Ties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MsKingBean89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsKingBean89/gifts).
  * Inspired by [All the Young Dudes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10057010) by [MsKingBean89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsKingBean89/pseuds/MsKingBean89). 



> This work was inspired by All the Young Dudes, an amazing fic written by MsKingBean89. I do not claim their original characters or details from their work. 
> 
> I do not agree with or condone JK Rowling's horrible transphobic views.

Spring Break - April 2016

Teddy was walking off the beach quite quickly and through Brighton, as if to catch the thoughts racing around in his head. A random middle-aged man from a record store, a muggle nonetheless, had known his father better than any wizard he had ever met. 

Harry himself, who always spoke of his father with such a high regard, had clearly never known about this secret part of his life. And Sirius! Harry would have a field day. 

He smiled to himself as he nervously fiddled with the key in his pocket, a key that would unearth decades of his father’s life. As much as he wanted to go straight to the flat, the weight of all that Grant had told him, all the lies, felt overwhelming. 

Teddy turned into an alley behind a pizza place and took a deep breath. While he had sufficiently passed his apparition test a few months ago, it still made him uneasy. 

With a loud pop, Teddy appeared on the outside edge of the Potter’s back garden. Due to the family’s general fame (from Harry’s achievements in the war to Logan’s medical accomplishments at St. Mungo’s to Ginny’s quidditch career), they had cast protective spells all around the property. They prevented anyone but friends and family from knowing its location, even filtering out fan mail from unknown owls. 

Teddy walked around the perimeter of the house and stepped into the entryway, knowing that the wards would alert anyone inside that he was arriving. Sure enough, there is a soft thumping sound upstairs followed by hurried footfalls. 

“Teddy!” The eight year-old boy flew down the stairs and attacked him in a bear hug. Teddy laughed. 

“Miss me much, Artie?” Artie just grinned up at him broadly, looking incredibly like his father, and continued to cling onto his leg. 

Teddy hobbled into the bright kitchen, Artie still hanging on him like a koala. Olivia was perched on the counter licking a spatula, batter smeared on her glasses, and Harry, for Merlin knows what reason, was washing the dishes by hand. 

He glanced up, smiling softly at the two of them, and with a quick wave of his hand, set the dishes to wash themselves. Teddy had never seen a wizard besides Harry perform such seamless magic without a wand, yet it appeared like second nature to him. 

Seeing the cookie batter, Artie detached himself from Teddy’s leg and stuck his whole hand in the used mixing bowl, his eyes darting mischievously between Harry and Teddy, as though asking one of them to tell him off. 

“Hey, mate. Wasn’t expecting you today. Thought you were staying at Bill and Fleur’s this weekend?” Harry asked, drying his hands on a dishcloth. 

“I am, I just wanted to stop by to tell you something- it’s good, don’t worry.” He quickly added, seeing the anxiety forming on Harry’s face. 

Suddenly, Teddy felt the nervous excitement return to his stomach, like it had right after he had spoken to Grant. “I met someone that knew my dad.” 

Clearly this was not what Harry had expected Teddy to say. He sprang up from his seat, his eyes wide. 

“Are you serious Ted? That’s amazing!” Teddy grinned. He knew that Harry could truly understand this, having lost his own parents. He was always trying to find people that knew them while they were living, as if to hold onto a memory that he never had. 

“Well, tell me about them. Did they go to Hogwarts?”

As Teddy recounted his run in with Grant at the record store and the memories Grant had told him about Remus, Harry pulled the batch of cookies out of the oven and poured them both cups of tea. Artie was trying to show Olivia a muggle magic trick George had taught him, while simultaneously shoving chocolate chip cookies into his mouth. 

Temporarily ignoring his daughter’s laughter and quickly vanishing cookies, Harry's full attention was on the story unraveling before him, something which Teddy appreciated. 

“Grant said that he and my dad lived together in the eighties, you know, after-” Harry nodded quickly, his face solemn. “-but when Sirius came back, he left for good.”

Teddy tentatively met Harry’s eyes, trying to see if he picked up on his phrasing of Grant and Remus’s relationship throughout the story. His jaw was set and he was scratching his beard as if in deep thought. 

“Yeah, that’s when they joined the Order. Merlin, you don’t mean to say this Grant and your dad were together?” Teddy gave a weak smile. 

“Um, yeah, for twelve years.” Harry’s expression was somewhere between shock and sadness. 

“Blimey…”

“I was surprised too, but as much as-” However Teddy was interrupted by Elliot and Logan entering the kitchen. Some of the stress that lined Harry’s face seemed to drain as his son ran toward him, a huge grin plastered on his face. 

Harry picked him up, resting the six year-old on his hip, and ruffled his messy black hair, identical to his own. 

“Hey, Els. How was quidditch?” Harry smiled softly. “Was mum good?”  
“Mummy was the best! She flew, like, this fast!” Elliot moved his hand wildly through the air, supposedly to imitate a broomstick. “I wanna be a chaser when I grow up.” 

“No way, beaters are so much cooler!” interrupted Artie, his mouth still full of cookies. Elliot stuck his tongue out at Artie. 

“Why don’t you two go play quidditch upstairs?” offered Logan, running a hand through his cropped brown hair. Artie’s eyes lit up and Elliot wiggled free from Harry’s arms. The two boys giggled as they raced each other up to their room to play a miniature game of quidditch on their toy broomsticks. 

Logan sighed and sat down beside Teddy, accepting a steaming mug of tea from Harry. 

“Don’t know how I thought marrying an international quidditch player would be a walk in the park.” Harry grimaced. 

“How bad was it?” 

“Oh, just the regular. Press badgering for news about you. Wanting to know if you’ve been neglecting your family because you haven’t made any public appearences. I saw Ginny after the match, though. She looked happier than I’d seen her in months.”

Teddy began to lose track of the conversation, deep in thought. He thought about his dad, who had kept his life a secret from even the people who cared for him. How he had compartmentalized his identity to the point where Teddy had three different pictures of his father, one each from Harry and Gran, and now one from Grant. And what was it for? His pride? His protection? Was he so ashamed of being gay that he married the first woman to show interest in him, just to escape it? Was that more important than trusting his friends? 

Harry wasn’t like that. Harry, while a homebody and quite reserved when it came to the Ministry and The Daily Prophet, was an open book with Teddy. He had shared with him the abuse he suffered from with the Dursleys, his adventures at Hogwarts, and his own experience discovering that he was queer. He tried his best to tell stories of Remus and Tonks, but often fell short. Now Teddy knew why. 

“Well, I should be off. Got appointments in an hour. If there aren’t any emergency calls I’ll be home around one.” Logan kissed Olivia and Harry and waved to Teddy as headed toward the front door, grabbing his duffel bag on the way out. 

The second the door closed Olivia frowned and looked up a Harry. 

“Where’s Papa?” She looked on the verge of tears. 

“Hey, come here,” Harry picked up the little girl and she snuggled into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Papa had to go to work, but he’ll be back when you wake up.” He rubbed her back soothingly, and looked back at Teddy. 

“Sorry, keep talking. You were about to say something before they came in.” Teddy chuckled. 

“Yeah, I was saying that it was much more of a shock to find out that Sirius and my dad dated.” 

Harry, who had unfortunately taken a sip of tea at that moment, sputtered into his mug. 

He gave Teddy an incredulous look and, still coughing mumbled, “What?!” 

“Grant told me that my dad and...Sirius had been together since they were at Hogwarts. Until he went to Azkaban….” Teddy drifted off, trying to gauge how Harry would react. 

“Bloody hell!” whispered Harry, laughing softly. “Sirius and Remus. I never would have guessed.” Teddy shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. 

“Oh, he also gave me the key-to the flat in London.” Teddy clarified. “Said there was some of my dad’s stuff still there.” He paused. “I was wondering if you’d come with me to see it?” Harry’s face relaxed, full of genuine empathy. 

“Of course, Ted. We can go whenever you feel ready.” Teddy’s eyes suddenly pricked with tears and he sniffled. “Hey, bud,” Harry walked around the counter, Olivia still in his arms and wrapped Teddy in a hug. 

Teddy leaned into it, feeling small and protected, a little kid, not a six-foot-five teenager that had almost graduated Hogwarts. 

“Does Teddy need a hug too?” Olivia whispered in her dad’s ear. Teddy felt Harry nod and the three year-old wrapped her arms around Teddy’s neck. He laughed and pulled away from the both of them rubbing his eyes. Teddy took a steadying breath and met Harry’s green eyes. 

“They still loved each other, right? My parents?” He had been worried about this ever since Grant told him of his father’s sexuality.

Harry paused, deep in thought.

“I don’t know what their relationship was like, but I know that they meant a lot to each other. You were the most important thing in your father’s life.” Harry said softly. “I remember when you were born, he was the happiest I’d ever seen him. I’m sure he and Tonks loved each other.” 

Two Days Later

Teddy stood in front of the door to flat nine, frozen. The yellow paint was chipped and scuff marks from shoes marred the lower part of the doorway, a sign that the apartment had been well-lived in. 

Opening the door felt like too much. The flat contained a piece of history that they could never put back, never unremember. 

Harry stood next to them unmoving. Teddy felt him waiting patiently for them to make the first move to open the door. 

“Alright,” they lifted their wand and began murmuring the counterspells to lift the wards. Several of them had been lifted already, as some do when the caster dies. They felt a pang of sadness at this thought. 

After undoing the last protective enchantment Teddy pulled the key out of their pocket, unlocked the door, and slowly turned the knob. Nothing happened. They pushed it harder. It didn’t budge. It took Teddy slamming their shoulder against the door multiple times for it to finally unstick. 

They entered a small musty living room, empty except for a couch, coffee table, and a television set. It appeared as though the inhabitants had just got up one day and left, taking all the necessities with them. The coffee table was littered with newspapers, scraps of parchment, and cigarettes. There was a blanket unfolded on the couch and a few books still lined the shelves, organized in no particular manner. There were large empty gaps throughout the bookshelves, as if someone had combed through them and picked out those worth keeping. Harry picked up one of the papers, coughing as dust flew into the air.

“This is from The Prophet,” he murmured. “July 13, 1995. Must’ve been right before The Order was reformed.” Teddy didn’t have anything to say to that, they were too busy looking at everything around them. 

The adjoining kitchen contained a fridge with a mysterious pink stain on the front and a pair of mugs on the counter, also completely covered in dust. 

There were two doors off the living room, one of which was a bathroom, complete with tacky pink and green tiles. 

The last room was a bedroom. Though they shouldn’t have been, Teddy was still surprised as the bare queen bed, stationed with side tables and dressers clearly meant for a couple. They stood at the door frame, neither Harry nor Teddy wanting to enter. 

It was hard to think that Remus had lived in this flat longer than he had been with Tonks or him. That he had been so secretive that even Harry hadn’t known about his past. 

“I can’t be in here any longer.” Teddy walked towards the front door. Harry quickly followed them.

“Wanna head to the garage? Probably more things to look at there.” Teddy looked at him. 

“Yeah, sure.” 

“Oof,” Harry heaved the garage door open, revealing more than dozen large cardboard boxes. Unlike the flat, the boxes were in pristine condition, magic protecting them from the elements. Harry glanced at Teddy.

“Well then, let’s take a look.” 

They both opened a box, starting to pull out items at random. 

Suddenly, Harry drew in a shaky breath. 

“What?” Teddy walked over to see what Harry was looking at. 

It was a wizard photograph. Two young women, one with cool brown skin, the other pale and rosy cheeked, were smiling down at a baby in the pale woman’s arms. Next to them, smiling softly and waving at the camera was a broad-shouldered man with large glasses. Harry flipped the picture over, and written on the back was: 

Prongs, Lily, and Mary with Baby Prongs - September ‘80.

“That’s you, isn’t it?” Harry nodded and Teddy saw him wipe his eyes with his sleeve. “And Mary...she was at the wedding, right?”

“Yeah, suppose she never knew about this.” Harry sniffled. “We’d better go through this if we want to be back for dinner.”

Soon enough objects and memorabilia covered the floor. Books, both muggle and wizard, old Hogwarts uniforms in various sizes, and David Bowie records. Letters and postcards from unknown and known people; A man named Ferox, Dumbledore, Mary McDonald, Hope Jenkins, and the Potters. A dented tin prefect’s badge. A pair of football shin guards. An empty lighter. 

However Teddy's favorite things to discover among the piles of clothes and knick knacks were the photos. A decent amount were moving photos, but some, probably taken by Grant were still. Harry set aside dozens of wizard photographs of his parents and Sirius, along with a couple to send to Mary. 

They captured birthdays and holidays and all the tiny moments in between. Teenage Remus and a blond girl on a beach in the summer. James and Sirius playing Quidditch at school. Grant and Remus smoking out the window of the London flat. Remus asleep on Sirius’s lap, Sirius petting his hair. 

There was an odd lurch in the pit of their stomach whenever they came across one of these pictures. They had this mental image of his dad, always older, in his forties, and always paired with his mum. Teddy had always assumed that, if they ever found out about Remus’s past, it would reflect this mental picture. 

Harry, however, was enthralled, excitedly searching for pictures of his family and memories of Sirius and Remus. 

“Look at this!” Harry grinned broadly, holding up a worn black leather jacket. “This was Sirius’s.” He pointed to the tag marked with the initials “SOB” in a neat script. 

He hesitated for a second, as if deciding something, then put it on over his jumper. It fit snugly, as if it was made to be given to him at some point. 

Teddy smiled. “Nice….” They had just unearthed a brown envelope from a disorganized mix of corduroy pants and patched sweaters. Teddy opened it and their mouth dropped. They were pictures of a family- a gangly man, a woman with sunny blonde hair, and a little boy, practically identical to the moving images of Teddy as a baby. 

After what Grant had told them, of Remus growing up at a boys’ home, Teddy hadn’t expected to find anything from his childhood, especially of his parents. 

Harry and Teddy ended up reorganizing the items into multiple boxes of memorabilia to keep for themselves (pictures, letters, sentimental objects, and clothing), some donations (mostly muggle books), and lastly, packages to send to Grant and Mary. 

As they were leaving, discreetly levitating the a few of the boxes in front of them, Teddy caught Harry smiling affectionately at them, his glasses lopsided.

“What?” asked Teddy awkwardly laughing.

“Nothing,” Harry turned away, still grinning dopily. “I’m just proud of my godson.”

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize if I mess up Teddy's pronouns in any part of this work- I am new to writing fanfic. I also wanted to clarify that Harry does not misgender Teddy at the end by saying "godson". I was originally going to put "you", but I thought that the parallel between Sirius and Harry's relationship and Harry and Teddy's was too cute/important. "Godchild" also sounded odd.
> 
> I personally headcanon Teddy as genderfluid who uses the pronouns They/He/She depending on the day.
> 
> I am not genderfluid so please let me know if this is at all incorrect.


End file.
